Accurate characterization of high-speed optoelectronic components can be important to the design and implementation of systems such as high-speed optical links. Photo-detector types include, but are not limited to, PIN diodes, avalanche photodiodes (APD), phototransistors, photoconductors and waveguide photo-detectors.
High data rate telecommunications data are often delivered over networks of high-speed optical links comprising optical fibers. The networks may employ sensitive photo-detectors to detect the data being delivered. The trend is for the optics to be made increasingly smaller. Sensitive photo-detectors ranging from a few microns to a few dozen microns are now common.
Photo-detectors are commonly aligned to yield a maximum power output. However, the preferred performance of the photo-detector in a particular application may not be coincident with the maximum power output. Determination of the preferred performance of a photo-detector may be made possible by characterizing the responsivity of the photo-detector across the detector's photo-sensitive surface.